Leica IIIC and a 5cm f/2 Summitar fell into my lap today...

[batterytypehah!]

Maybe those happened during development, though? The rest of the roll is near perfect.

By the way, I wouldn't mess with the high speeds. It's known that the nominal 1/500 and 1/1000 speeds were a little optimistic pretty much across the board with many of the old shutters. I would treat them like 1/400 and 1/800 (which is actually easier given those odd Leica speed steps).

 

[pagpow]

It looks to me like 4 of the last 5 (not including next to last one) have a problem. I'll let those who develop their own film chime in about whether the lack of problem in th enext to last one helps locate the issue in exposure or development.

 

[kzphoto]

The film is from a bulk roll of 160S. The red light leaks on frames 29,30 I am familar with, the last frame was exposed near the end of the roll. (I bulk roll in daylight.)

Frame 31 has some fishiness going on. I have no idea what caused that.

 

[bukaj]

i'm convinced that a CLA can go a long way with these cameras. When I got mine (in the family for generations, just sitting in a closet for at least a decade) the slow speeds didn't work, there were streaks across most shots at 500 and 1000, the left side of the frame was brighter than the right, along with some other issues. And my camera was obviously beat up with a dent on the body. But it's working much better now. Not perfect, but really enjoyable and takes great pictures.

Use any issues to bring the price down, but from what I've heard around here, you'll want to send it out for a CLA anyway. Since you're in the bay area, I have seen a few iii's at Adolf Gasser and Camera Heaven, both in San Francisco. Never asked for prices, though.

-jakub